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Newsletter in October 2008 Hard Times. Hard Choices. : October 17, 2008 by Ron Morris I’ve seen this before, and his name was John Kennedy. Perplexed? Join the club. There are times when I see Obama as perhaps the most eloquent and articulate speaker I’ve heard in years. And this takes in a lot of speakers. But you know, I’ve been sold so many “bills of goods” by guys just like him. McCain? Better than Bush, but halting, rough-hewn, and oftentimes simply unable to match Barack on style points. And we are huge consumers of style in this country. Huge. Maybe we always were and I just hadn’t noticed it, but I suspect that, in an age of fast-moving images and very, very short attention spans, style has finally trumped substance. (So has “shallow.” Remember when you would get on a plane and most of the people were reading novels? Now it’s People (magazine) or Us, or anything that doesn’t require a significant commitment in time and concentration.) Barack is unflappable. I see this and I project him into the CEO slot and think, “So that’s how he’ll deal with Putin … calm and cool and ‘slick.’” But, will Putin be impressed? Or will Putin, as did Khrushchev in 1961, make the snap judgment that Obama is both glib and weak? For we all know what happened next. I was a McCain guy at the beginning. I’ll tell you why later. But remember … I was the same guy who gave you Swan over Rendell, DeSantis over Luke, and Bush over whomever. Not exactly a track record, eh? (On the other hand, wouldn’t you like to have anyone but Rendell as your governor right now? Or for that matter, DeSantis?) McCain has lived. But has he learned? The only piece of decent journalism that I have seen during this entire seven-year (or so it seems) campaign was a two-hour special on PBS’ Frontline, comparing the two candidates. This was an eye-opener. They played it straight down the middle, I could not detect a bias. And here’s what I got: * Obama is wise, probably beyond his years. This, due to his circumstances. Think about it … how hard must he have had to work his whole life simply to come up to the level that the white guy enjoys from day one? I once worked with a black guy by the name of Ralph Gordon and I watched him work so hard just to “break even.” I suspect that this is how it is for Palin as well. * It is possible to live 72 years and still be dense. I’m not saying that this is how it is for McCain, but it is possible. * Having said this, I am now more convinced than ever that once John McCain takes a position on something that is very, very important to the country, he will not back off that position under any sort of weight. This is how he is on Iraq. This is how he is on Palin. I like my presidents tough. I think that McCain is probably tougher than Obama. Probably. * In my 38+ years as a business owner, I have learned that it is downright imperative that you not only hire the smartest people you can, but also that you give them the clearest definition of your direction as is possible. Some might call this a plan. Plans themselves are a by-product of one’s ability to see the biggest picture possible. And seeing the biggest picture possible requires a lot of bandwidth. * So, is Obama that “Rising Star” that merely hasn’t had the reins of a significant corporation? Do we give a guy lacking his experience not only the car keys, but also the checkbook, the credit cards (assuming they will still exist in the future), and the deed to the ranch? Ouch. * And, is McCain smart enough to build his version of International Business Machine Corporation? On the fly? * I like to say, “Give me people who make great decisions more than 50 percent of the time.” So which of these guys can do this? Think about it … we’ve got guys with guns all over the world. The world’s economy is shakier than perhaps it has been since the 30s. Our infrastructure is crumbling and we lack the money to make it right. A lot of our people have gone soft and the easy life is the “way of life” for way too many people in our society. (I personally believe this is because we have become a society that makes its successful people give their hard-earned dollars to those who have chosen to put it on “cruise control”.) * I also know that if you punish the hard-working entrepreneurs who drive this economy by taking risks and providing jobs and thus taxes, you will likely lose a good number of them somehow, someway. What then have we accomplished? And so I ask myself, “If this Obama guy is so smart, why can’t he see this? (Remember, John Kennedy was a Brahman. His Daddy was loaded, and not necessarily with just cash!) I teach courses on entrepreneurism at Duquesne University. I’ve been doing this for nearly a decade. I preach and preach the word “differentiate.” The United States is differentiated from the rest of the world because it presents the most unique blend of socio-economics that anyone has ever conceived. We are free market capitalists, operating in a “petri dish” of democracy. This works so well because freedom and free markets most closely replicate human nature. By nature, we are acquisitive, free, and industrious. Our very Constitution enables our economic behavior. The young man in me wants to give the ball to Obama. That young man believes that significant change is absolutely necessary at this time. But he also fears the type of change that a Barack Obama might bring to the party. His “nightmare scenario” is an Obama that practices some utopian form of social engineering at the expense of all that the young man has worked for his entire life. The other guy, the “old man” if you will, fears the kind of change that Obama might bring and, while still desiring change, hopes that McCain will preserve a bit more of the status quo while aggressively dealing with the cancer that is identified throughout this article. I’m still voting McCain. But I won’t be unhappy if Barack Obama should become our next President. Scared? You bet. But as a guy who has been bankrupt, homeless, and twice told he was going to die of cancer, what the hell is there really to be scared of?